Fuller Family Trucking Firings

A story about family business rivalry and getting fired from family companies.

"My father started what became the 5th largest trucking company in the US, and my uncle started what's now the 8th largest trucking company. They were pretty dire competitors. Nowadays they're much better and get along, but there was a period of time where they absolutely hated each other.

I got fired twice from family businesses. First, I got fired from my father's trucking company US Express in 2005 - it was actually my older brother who became the CEO that had me fired. Then I took over a payments company, a fuel card company that they had incubated. We scaled that up and sold part of it to US Bank.

My father fired me again in 2014 because it was a tech business. Tech businesses burn a lot of capital while scaling, but my father didn't understand that - he was used to trucking which is a cash flow business. He got really mad because he didn't want to raise any money, so he fired me because he didn't think I could run a business that would be profitable. What's funny is that business is now one of the most valuable assets in the family's portfolio - it just got a $500 million valuation last September."